Where are the Au Ra?

[Gula]

Going back to poor Yugiri not having her model ready yet, the cutscene still remains as her covering herself because she thinks Eorzeans wouldn't like her lizard tail and horns. When cat people are just fine. This in turn makes no sense if the WoL is an Au Ra, and even moreso (less so?) with that one Raen in Wolves Den cowering at the pier.

But now that the routes to the East and West have been connected once more- where are the Au Ra? Xaela stick to the Steppes for the most part (except the tribes that just dont) and we know not all Raen are confined to Sui no Sato. Plus the small well of them as Confederates. Is it out of the question to plop a few of them around city states?

[Kidria]

My guess in going back to pre-HW expac Yugiri -- when she first dropped Au Ra were not available to be played, so there is no coding for her reacting to the WoL being an Au Ra. I doubt they'll ever go back and add that.

As for the Raen in Wolves Pier I have no idea when he appeared, but it can be safe to assume it's after HW dropped and he happened to be another refugee.

Now that we're post-SB, however, the lack of Au Ra is still a little odd. Xaela are still more plentiful, and the only Raen I've seen are the Sui no Sato, the pirates (which you wonder if they're from Sui originally), the NIN NPC, a WVR NPC, and the girl from the Ivalice questline. I don't recall any 'wild' Raen in Kugane or even in the rebel forces/Namai, and there's even a random Xaela in Kugane at Pier 1.

[Jaywalker]

I don't recall any 'wild' Raen in Kugane or even in the rebel forces/Namai, and there's even a random Xaela in Kugane at Pier 1.

I think there's at least one Raen lady in Kugane somewhere between the Ruby Bazaar and the market?

[Kidria]

I think there's at least one Raen lady in Kugane somewhere between the Ruby Bazaar and the market?

Welp I'm gonna go on a Raen hunt and see if I can't find em all now.

[Jaywalker]

Welp I'm gonna go on a Raen hunt and see if I can't find em all now.

Lolol good luck! Honestly I'm curious how it goes for you haha. If it helps I think the Raen lady might have been tied to a quest (something about trying to pay an unpleasant merchant lady I think and she sends you instead), but I'm not positive.

[Kidria]

Lolol good luck! Honestly I'm curious how it goes for you haha. If it helps I think the Raen lady might have been tied to a quest (something about trying to pay an unpleasant merchant lady I think and she sends you instead), but I'm not positive.

I ran all over Kugane and these are all the Au Ra in general that I could find. If there are any quest-related ones I can't say I've seen them/remember them, as I did a few Kugane quests, but for the most part I actually haven't done too many yet. Outside the WVR girl, I think the rest are "always" there and are the "wild" NPCs.


First up are these... either farmers or maybe geomancers? Outside the Holstelry.



This is the WVR girl NPC. I dunno if she's ALWAYS there or only when you're doing/done with the WVR line.



This is also a WVR-related NPC but he's always there.



This is apparently a questgiver! I haven't done his quest yet tho so there may be other Au Ra that come in with it? He's at the ship near Pier 1 aetheryte.



This one is new; he trade you the Kirin Osode from Eureka, near the Eureka entrance in Kugane.



This random Xaela also at Pier 1, where the BSM quest takes you.



Also this geomancer guy, who has maybe 3 lines in the AST storyline.



So far I haven't found a single Au Ra in Namai, the House of the Fierce, OR the Doman Enclave (Enclave was at night tho so idk if those Xaela guys are in the rice field during the day or no.) So much for being the "prominent" race of Hingashi, Koji!! There are more Roes here than there are in Eorzea, I swear.

[Gula]

Wow dude thanks for all the scouting. And yes, there are surprisingly tons of male Roe around. So much so you'd think they outnumber midlanders. Since NPCs can appear as per the quest your on, like the Crystal Braves, I think a great addition could be the race of the expansion having more prominence just around. There are literally empty spots in every city state that would not immediately crash the game if a pair of Au Ra or soon to be Viera were poofed in... maybe. I question this game's spaghetti code every day.

[Kidria]

Wow dude thanks for all the scouting. And yes, there are surprisingly tons of male Roe around. So much so you'd think they outnumber midlanders. Since NPCs can appear as per the quest your on, like the Crystal Braves, I think a great addition could be the race of the expansion having more prominence just around. There are literally empty spots in every city state that would not immediately crash the game if a pair of Au Ra or soon to be Viera were poofed in... maybe. I question this game's spaghetti code every day.

It'd def be nice. Au Ra just kinda feel shoehorned in now that SB's been out, especially Raen. Xaela have an entire zone dedicated to them, but the Raen have one small village and a dungeon. I get the Raen are scattered but when I asked my question for FanFest, it got so glossed over it was pretty unsatisfying lol The Ruby Sea is so big and the way the Raen talk in Sui-no-Sato you'd think there'd be more than just one village given all the time they've been down there, but we don't know that. And they say there's lots of Raen in Hingashi and they're mostly mid to high class, but you should still see em walking around. Not every Raen is gonna be a rich folk. It's kinda sad cause Viera look like they're gonna have an entire zone for themselves, and a LOT of lore to borrow and bend for FF14. I know Au Ra are an original race so they have to make it all from scratch but... yeah. the Raen are a lot like Duskwrights in how we're represented. We at least get a few key NPCs (Yuigiri, the girl from the Ivalice quests, etc) I guess.

[Cilia]

The issue is that the Raen are culturally based on Tokugawa era Japan - they're very isolationist, so we don't see them often. Other than Hingashi (which itself has a very similar policy), they have only one very well-hidden and out of the way settlement that can be visited. As a result of this, the only Raen seen outside of Othard are refugees or vagrants - which would naturally be rather low in number.

The Xaela, on the other hand, have the Azim Steppe to themselves. Being culturally modeled on pre-modern Mongolians, they don't spurn contact with the outside world like the Raen but don't seek it out either. As a result the Xaela seen outside the Steppe are also either refugees or vagrants.

... it's not that they aren't including NPCs of the race, it just doesn't make sense for them to be populous outside of their home territories.

[Kidria]

The issue is that the Raen are culturally based on Tokugawa era Japan - they're very isolationist, so we don't see them often. Other than Hingashi (which itself has a very similar policy), they have only one very well-hidden and out of the way settlement that can be visited. As a result of this, the only Raen seen outside of Othard are refugees or vagrants - which would naturally be rather low in number.

The Xaela, on the other hand, have the Azim Steppe to themselves. Being culturally modeled on pre-modern Mongolians, they don't spurn contact with the outside world like the Raen but don't seek it out either. As a result the Xaela seen outside the Steppe are also either refugees or vagrants.

... it's not that they aren't including NPCs of the race, it just doesn't make sense for them to be populous outside of their home territories.

Xaela is understandable as that's in-game easily. As for the Tokugawa culture, I thought that was just for the names? My thing tho is that even in the Othard and Hingashi we can get to, they're still very low in number, and the recent FanFest Q&A when it was asked to the lore team made it out like they were populous and in very high regard. It just feels contradictory.